Sunday, February 28

My day started at five…IN THE MORNING, with a text from my mom asking Are you under a tsunami warning? what’s the reports from your end?

I don5 know. still sleeping. It’s 5

8.8 IN CHILE – check your local – SAID WILL HIT AT SIX YOUR TIME.

That got me up! Within seconds Joey calls from work saying they’re stuck there, the highway’s been shut down because of a fatal motorcycle accident. Then I start getting facebook messages and texts and phone calls, and to be honest, I wasn’t scared until I sensed that everyone else was! I was never worried about mine and the kids’ safety because we are, what they call, “up country”. I was just worried about Joey and what would happen with him, and that we’d be without him. All I could think was I WANT HIM HOME. I wasn’t even paying attention to the news and the fact that the entire island was stocking up on food and gas. I knew the tsunami would never reach us, so no need to bother with those things. Once Joey made it home (the freeway closure was behind him) he called his good friend that lives in the evacuation zone and then we headed down to the beach to help them move things to higher ground.

It was around seven when we went down and our road was already starting to fill up with evacuees. The tsunami wasn’t expected to hit until after eleven, and everyone on our side of the island seemed to be taking it seriously, and I didn’t see anyone panicking. The roads were pretty clear way up here, but Joey did say the two lane highway, Farrington, out to this point was very busy, but moving good.

Makaha Beach was deserted except for a few lone diehard surfers, and a plane flying overhead blasting a loud siren for all the people that live "on the beach”. They have no electricity and quite possibly could not know what’s about to hit. Up at our place the sirens were pretty weak but our friends down here were jolted awake by them.

On our way back up the hill I was trying to get some quick shots of the evacuees along the roadside when one woman said, Look at dat bitch..taking pic-tures! That’s all we need is to give the locals another reason to not like this Haole.

Our friends ended up evacuating to our place, and at eleven we were standing on the street corner at the top of the hill to see what’s going to happen. I expected the entire complex to be out there looking but I think we were the ONLY ONES. Everyone else were evacuees. There was no way I wasn’t going to be out there!

People were set up in the ditch like it was a day at the beach and they were relaxed and enjoying themselves.

When we’d already been out there an hour and hearing reports that it was finally starting to show some action over on the Big Island, we knew we had to wait at least that much longer still. I hardly took my eyes off the water because I did not want to miss anything. The kids were already over it.

Cars were parked everywhere on our street, including in the bus stops and center divider.

At one point the kids found a lizard and Jewel was ecstatic. Then I made her let the little kids hold him too because she couldn’t keep running away from them all day. She didn’t want to let them “because they’re only five.” Which translated to “she’s not responsible enough and will drop him!” Which is exactly what she did. The rest of the day was a big fat sad face for Jewel.

This picture screams to me, The Natives Are Restless!

I loved all these little island kids playing with big sticks and no one getting hurt…. and no one yelling at them to stop. Where’s all this panic the news was reporting?

Finally we started to see some action in the water. First I saw one single solitary large wave, and then probably half an hour later I started noticing this white circle in the ocean.

It started off as a solid circle and then very gradually started to spread out.

The weird thing was..no one else was commenting on this. Or else they’re all just very very quiet. Or else, it’s, you know…normal.

While I was keeping my eye on that growing circle I notice the family in front of me.

How sweet is that? I half expected people to be stressed out, scared, nervous, agitated. I saw none of that.

We decided to walk down the hill a bit to see if we could get a better view. We can see the circle has gotten really wide and thin now……and there are whales riding right in it! We also saw the line of cars down to the coast………… doesn’t stop.

Jewel did find the one empty spot to sit down and sulk in, though.

After a couple hours we figured there wasn’t going to be anything more to see so we went back to the condo to wait for them to lift the evacuation order. Around five Jewel and I went down to Makaha Beach to see if there was anything even noticeable on the beach.

Up here you’d never even know this road housed hundreds of people just hours earlier.

And peacocks stood where we stood all afternoon.

And the beach was quiet and welcoming.

Looks like the water didn’t get any higher than any other day. The only difference were the lack of sunbathers for a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and a lack of waves.

I still can’t believe we live in Hawaii, and now we experience a tsunami. A TSUNAMI! 2010 is proving to be quite an exciting year, and we’ve barely just begun. I CANNOT wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us.

We finished off our day getting our ankles wet in a post tsunamic ocean and if I hadn’t been so wiped out from a long day, I may just have taken Jewel up on her request to get our suits on and go for a swim.

Saturday, February 27

We spend most of our time here on the west side of the Island, but one night a while back I saw in the paper that Dana Lyons was going to be performing free in a park in Honolulu. Dana Lyons is a vegetarian/comedian/singer/songwriter, and the background music to a video I made a few years back, called Run, Billy, Run. I was really looking forward to doing something special with/for Jonas. He always seems to like the exact opposite as the rest of us, but this was something he actually WANTED to do….it was sponsored by the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii, and to be honest I was hoping to get some recipes. We watched and laughed over and over to his Cows with Guns video, and drove all the way to Honolulu. In the dark…… After spending an hour in rush hour traffic, that was anything but rushing, we got to the park thirty minutes late and couldn’t find him! We found numerous other gatherings but nothing that looked like a concert in the park. Talk about being bummed out, but luckily everyone took it in stride.And me? ……Well, I took a picture, of course.

This was my first attempt at a night scene and can see I need a lot of practice. But then that means I have to go out into the big city at night. Alone. Because no one else wants to sit around while I’m taking pictures. Now I get the whole photo walking thing! I don’t go places with the intention of taking pictures, they just happen when I see something shiny or sparkly. I might have to change that.

This is our side of the island. Notice the difference? It’s much more our speed. And, see that little mountain? According to our local friends that is the World’s Smallest Mountain, and I plan on conquering it very soon. This night though was for eating ice cream cones. Again, I wasn’t planning on pictures so only had my cell phone and kicked myself for not having my camera……… That sunset glow sure is a wonderful thing.

Notice the rainbow to the right of Jewel? If we tried, I bet we could find at least one rainbow everyday here.

Back at home we have pretty good sunsets of our own.

But inside our home, we have a different glow.

I got this glowing candle at a thrift store, and I just lurve it. It takes me back to the time when Joey and I first started dating. It was the first time I’d ever seen these candles in the artsy district in Phoenix and they were too expensive for me to buy, so I only had one really teeny tiny small one, which burned up in hours. It’s been thirteen years since I’d seen one of these candles and couldn’t believe it when I found this one unburned in a thrift store. I still don’t understand people that don’t burn their candles, but I do thank them.

Friday, February 26

This are cell phone pictures from the beach and then the parking lot, looking towards our valley. This is how close we are to the beach, and my goal was to walk this road every day…….. It’s so easy to say that from three thousand miles away.

This is The Bus Stop. And my street corner.

And this is the drive up from the south side. So basically, either way is always a nice ride home.

Thursday, February 25

Today we checked out Oahu’s best restored Heiau (temple). It was originally built in the 1500’s and dedicated to the God of harvest, agriculture, and fertility, but by the 17th Century it was rededicated to the God of war by King Kamehameha. As a war temple, prisoner’s of war were sacrificed here. Pretty fun stuff.

Today’s it’s still considered a very sacred place and they don’t even want people speaking when they’re on the grounds. When we arrived there was only one other car there, which is rare in Hawaii since it seems like every place is busy..all the time. It was a nice treat.

The Heiau (pronounced Hey-ewww!) is located past the Makaha Resort so you have to go past security to get up there and it’s only for a few hours a day that you’re even allowed in. After parking it’s just a short walk to the Heiau.This is the front of it, but you’re not even allowed up the path to it. You have to walk all the way around it.

This is the “path” we had to walk. It’s tree roots. Then the view of the Heiau walls from behind.

Some people bring offerings to the Gods. I read beforehand what was acceptable, and if it wasn’t the listed acceptable offerings, than nothing was better than an inferior offering……….These items were not listed as acceptable offerings.

This was the closest we could get to the front of it, but it does show more of the walls. The buildings inside were recreated by the Bishop Museum, using thatching and wood from the Big Island.

We took note of the buildings like “hmmmmm…….this could be how we build our next home”

You didn’t think we’d be okay with living in a condo forever, did you?

Tuesday, February 23

We shipped eight boxes to Hawaii. Some small ones, but mostly large ones. All eight boxes made it here, with only one glass lid as a casualty. A glass lid that we shouldn’t have even brought in the first place. If we had it to do over again we would have spent some time selling things on Craigslist and just rebought those same items here from Craigslist or thrift stores. The only things I would have shipped were the personal, irreplaceable items. I thought it made sense to ship a skeleton set of bathroom and kitchen items, but I see now it would have been cheaper and less hassle to just go to Savers and start all over. Our thinking was we’d ship over a small household set to include everything we needed to eat on and sleep on, but as it turned out we made it here before they did and had to go get stuff anyway.

D-Rex made the cut because he was a recent gift from Grama, but he was still the dumbest thing we shipped. And the cutest.

Clothes: Now we’ve been to Hawaii numerous times and I’ve always said to people going to visit Hawaii to not even bother with clothes. Just take a couple pairs of shorts, tanks, a bathing suit and some flip flops and plan on buying Aloha wear there. I kept this theory in mind when I packed but I decided since we were going to be living there, and not just visiting, I’d bring all my summery clothes. All my summery clothes scream , TOURIST! TOURIST!! LOOK AT ME, I’M A TOURIST! No camera needed. Now in Waikiki my bright clothes fit in fine, but out here in Makaha, with all the locals, I’m just asking to get beat up and called a white bitch (which I have been (called, not beat up)). I went to Savers the other day for more dressed down and drab looking sundresses and I came home somewhere in between. Drab enough for me, yet bright enough for me. The kids and I will probably always stick out like sore thumbs around the Hawaiian’s but I’ve decided I don’t care anymore. If they don’t like me because I’m a Hoale, they’re not going to like me no matter how I dress anyway. So I may as well be me! :)

Monday, February 22

The tree top views off our lanai, and if you look closely you can see the ocean, and with binoculars we can check the surf report ourselves for Makaha Beach, or we can look down and just watch the peacock prancing around the backyard.

Everyone says if I lived in Hawaii I’d be at the beach EVERYDAY! Unless you live ON the beach, that’s probably not going to happen. When choosing our condo we wanted to be within bike distance from the beach and have nice views, so we got just what we wanted. and then some, with the private backyard and gorgeous landscaping, including banana trees. So even when we don’t go to the beach one day, we still always feel like we’re in Paradise. At night the trees are lit up slightly, which allows for the perfect light to watch the nocturnal birds. One night we had a white owl sit on the tree tops all night, and occasionally swoop our way causing a small bird to try to fly into our large windows. We’ve watched mongoose play in the yard and even watched lizards scurry across the living room floor. The hardest part to get used to the lizards are their loud cracking noises, and I hardly notice the peacocks “cries” anymore.

We practice our surfing skills inside

But no matter

how hard I try

I CANNOT KEEP THE SAND OUT!!

Our complex also has two pools with jacuzzi’s, palapa style laundry rooms, 24hr gated security that would require a small army to break thru, BBQ grills, basketball court and a tennis court.

The complex is made up of long term rentals, owner occupied and vacation rentals. I like it for the fact that it caters to the vacationers, because…..everyday here feels like a vacation!!